After spending most of the beginning of the week stuck indoors, windows closed, because of the extreme air quality alert, I decided to venture out Wednesday morning before swimming to see what progress has been made with the current “improvements” to the Chicago Portage. After nearly three years of masking indoors, I decided to wear a mask outdoors this time.

Although the gates are open and parking is available, gentle deterrents have been placed at either end of the paved paths to discourage foot traffic. So far, the inside trail has been widened and gravel has been laid down. I expect paving over the gravel will come next. In any event, note the signs say “Please Turn Around.” This is sufficient to cover liability. By the time I had walked past the second fencing, another walker was navigating the main trail. Although I did not see anyone else on the trail, when I got back to my car later, there were several more cars in the parking lot and the gravel roller soil compactor in the photo below was on a trailer, about to leave.

For what it’s worth, I tried to photograph the haze.

There were not a lot of birds out and about. Even the robins were laying low. I found a young-looking Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

There were a few Red-winged Blackbirds in the marshy area.

And one fearless Brown-headed Cowbird foraged close to the trail.

In general it was too hazy to photograph any birds against the skyline, but I couldn’t resist the Green Heron when it flew up to perch on this stump. I suspect it’s not too happy about the trail construction.

And now for a little more color. The remaining photos are from a brief visit on June 6. The first thing I noted was the only cicada I have seen all season.

Red-winged Blackbirds were busy.

I caught a first-spring male Indigo Bunting off guard.

One of the male Common Yellowthroats made a brief appearance.

A pensive American Robin was inspecting the duckweed.

The bird I captured below appears to be a young Warbling Vireo.

European Starlings were foraging in the duckweed.

There was an interesting article about duckweed by Michael J. Coren in The Washington Post a couple days ago. Apparently the humble duckweed is the new frontier for harvesting protein for a plant-based diet. So it’s no surprise the birds know what they’re up to.

I have a very busy week ahead of me playing piano for two Sunday services. I also will be working on trying to make sense of the jungle that is my backyard. So it’s hard to tell when or where the next post will come from, and I don’t anticipate going for too many walks this week, if at all. But I am finding I enjoy the challenges and the change of pace. And I keep praying some of the rain that’s in the forecast will actually visit us.